Romans Read The Lightning Thief
by OfScarsAndPain
Summary: Percy, Reyna, Jason, Octavian, Hazel, Frank, and Nico are sent to a random room in the middle of nowhere to read about Percy's adventures. Will Percy survive from the humility? Will Nico recover from his time with Gaia? Will Octavian throw his distrust for the Greeks away? Why are they obsessing over The Hunger Games? Find out here!
1. PreAlgebra Teachers Vaporize?

**A/N: Don't kill me? Sorry I haven't updated in a while… This is your gift for sticking with me! Yes I'm planning on doing the whole series, and Heroes of Olympus, but not The Lost Hero. Sorry I just really don't want to do that one. A story without Percy, it's just not a story to me.**

**Deal with it all you Jason fans. He just seems like a real fail to me, I'll try not to portray him as an idiotic teenage boy with no personality whatsoever, who holds a grudge against the amazing Percy Jackson. Though he might seem a little cocky at times, like Thalia at times.**

**I mean that one scene in the Titan's Curse? Please, Percy would've whooped her if the Oracle did not decide to take a stroll in the end of the game.**

**Piper is alright, but I have a feeling that she's going to end up as your regular child of Aphrodite if Rick doesn't make up his mind on who he wants Jason with.**

**Leo. Leo, Leo, Leo. He is the only good thing that came from The Lost Hero, other than finding out where Percy is, and seeing Annabeth put a knife to Jason's neck.**

**So I don't have anything against him. Back to the topic.**

**I will be updating soon, do not worry. Well, actually you should be worried a bunch. I've hit that thing called… wait for it.**

**Writer's block.**

**I've kind of lost some inspiration, so I've been reading as much of fan fics as I possibly can, trying to get that spark of interest again.**

**No such luck, but I've found some real cool stories. Check out my Favorites list, there are some good stories (in my opinion) in there.**

**Anyways, I've been in a funk, seriously. I've been a little sad since I can't find any inspiration that I started venting my anger into music. And some new stories. That are pretty long in my opinion.**

**I have a bunch of things in the making right now, I can't decide what to work on. The stories are NOT on Hiatus, because I am seriously writing things down on the documents and seeing where that goes. I've erased a bunch of things because I don't like it on some of the chapters I will be uploading soon, so that's why it's taking so long.**

**And then there's another thing that's keeping me from updating. That thing is called…**

**The Maximum Ride series. I haven't read, but I've heard of it. I want to read it SO bad, I've even started reading crossover and fics of them. Most of them are the 'What if Angel and Max get kicked out of the Flock' idea.**

**But I can't read it now, why you ask? My mom has decided that she won't buy me any books this summer, and that I have to wait until fall. Which is okay I guess, The Demi-God Diaries are coming out, so is the Mark of Athena, Hidden, the Rise of Nine, and a whole lot of other books I am planning on reading.**

**Another thing is Twilight, which I hate. But I just like any crossover that involves Percy Jackson, and I like that Percy becomes a super-hot vampire in most of them.**

**Pre-teen hormones suck. Ha ha, see what I did there? You Pervs.**

**Well I guess I'm not as different as you.**

**Anyways, I've started this. And I have the first chapter ready for all the books, including Demi-God Files. So, stick with me? I'll get out of this soon.**

**Please PM ideas on where I can go with my stories, especially MTOTTC and Going Under. I might just put the latter on Hiatus… Maybe. I don't have a problem with my two others stories, will not any major problems. But I still need ideas, I love hearing from my reviewers!**

**This story will actually be uploaded every Wednesday and Saturday. That gives me enough time to write the chapter, and put in the little dialogues. And some new guests as well. If this story gets deleted, well guess what's going up again? I don't care if they delete this story over a 100 times; I will re-upload it every time.**

**Or I can just on that website jlmill told me about. I already have an account on that one, it's the same penname I have on here. I haven't uploaded any stories though; I just got it because some of my favorite stories were moved there.**

**I like writing Reyna, she's some sort of puzzle I'm trying to figure out. I do support Preyna, the relationship and the friendship. This won't be a Preyna though, just a lot of 'Aww, he's such a good friend' moments.**

**Huh, I actually like writing author's notes now, please take the time to read this. And please PM or review ideas! Now like I said before this story might be, or what the Hades, will be OOC, but that makes it better for you since I don't have to make the Romans so serious.**

**Now without further Ado, here is…**

**Romans Read The Lightning Thief!**

"Percy, do you really think Jason's on the ship?" Reyna asked hesitantly, watching the giant war ship descend. She bit her lip nervously at the thought of Jason. He was her best friend, nothing more; people always mistook them for a couple. Honestly he was more like a brother, the best brother in the universe. They would do everything together, and she couldn't wait to see him again. When she found out he was alive and well, she kept her excitement to herself. But she knew once she saw Jason all of those would come out.

Percy chuckled. He stopped walking and she stood with him. The Romans beside and behind her gave them their space, still heading out to the Field of Mars. Percy tilted his head and narrowed his eyes, as if trying to see through the ship. Percy talked about a girl, Annabeth, and she was positively sure she was his girlfriend.

Now she could inwardly tease him all she wanted. Yes inwardly, because she couldn't show that she actually cared. If she let her emotions show all day, the Romans would see a weak broken girl. She sighed and put her head up high.

She was a daughter of Bellona, she was strong, and she was great.

No, she was not weak or broken. She was strong and mighty, one of the best out there. Soon everything would go back to normal and she could forget all about the months she spent worrying over Jason, and the months she spent evading Octavian. She could forget all about the stress of being the only Praetor, and finally be reunited with Jason. That is, if he remembered her.

She frowned and Percy snapped out of his thinking. He looked at her with a concerned expression. He always did care too much for his own good.

"You okay?" Percy whispered. Reyna put on a fake smile; she knew she didn't do well enough because he only got worried even more. She let out a nervous laugh.

"I'm just worried. Worried and scared. Worried, scared, and excited." She corrected. Percy rolled his eyes at her and she punched him on the shoulder. He let out a yelp and rubbed his shoulder.

She inwardly frowned. Romans weren't supposed to show weakness. They were supposed to suck it up and keep fighting until they dropped dead. She was upset when she found out Percy was Greek, he had potential. She thought back to what she had thought about everything being normal once again. What if she didn't want it to be normal? She had gotten close to Percy; he was like an older brother. She had even gotten over Circe's Island! She flinched slightly, glad when Percy didn't notice. Maybe she wasn't completely over it, but she didn't want to strangle Percy any more, or his 'friend' Annabeth.

"You're thinking too much. Try being more impulsive. Embrace your ADHD-ness." Percy said. Reyna rolled her eyes.

"Percy, I told you already that my ADHD isn't as bad as yours. I can control it." She said proudly. It had taken a few years, but she could actually sit still when she was bored. Well mostly, but normal humans do tap their feet against the floor or drum their fingers on the desk right? So she really wasn't different.

Despite the fact that she was part god.

"Do you think Jason has his memories back? You drank gorgon's blood, but if you hadn't, do you think you would have your full memories?" Reyna asked. Percy thought for a while.

"I don't know, I think I would still have Annabeth in my mind, but I think some of my best friend's I would remember vaguely." That sort of cheered Reyna up. Maybe Jason remembered her vaguely.

A little, after all, was better than none at all.

"We should get going, the ship looks like it's about to land." Percy pulled her out of her thoughts. She shot him a small smile and began walking to her fellow Romans and future friends.

Well, hopefully future friends.

She walked with her fellow Praetor up to the crowd of Romans. They were staring at awe, for the ship was actually very graceful and beautiful. Behind her a son of Vulcan was whispering excitedly to his siblings.

"It must've taken months; do you see the dragon head? It looks beautiful. I wonder who built it; we must consult with the builder."

"It really does look beautiful; the Greeks will most definitely land in style." Percy grinned as he stared at the sky. Reyna nodded in agreement.

"Hey Perce, you ditched us back there." Frank Zhang, son of Mars, pushed his way through the crowd of people, holding hands with Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto. The pair looked much happier than they did the week before.

Percy chuckles and moved a little so he could see Frank.

"Sorry, I was giving Rey here a pep talk." Frank chuckled while Hazel rolled her eyes. Reyna glared at Percy, who was grinning cheekily at her.

"Really, _Perseus_," Reyna made sure to drawl out the word, taking pleasure in seeing Percy squirm, "I don't think you should call me that again unless you want a dagger at your throat." Reyna said, smirking the whole time and making a big deal of examining her dagger.

Percy wiped his face clean of emotions before smirking at her.

"I look forward to that, Rey." Percy said, taking out his pen. Reyna smiled and turned to Hazel and Frank.

"Remind me that I have a duel with our Perseus here later today." She said sweetly, which caused Percy to flinch and Hazel to laugh. Frank saluted her before giving a smile.

"Ma'am yes ma'am." The Praetor turned her attention back to the ship, a smirk on her face. Percy watched her cautiously from her right. Reyna sheathed her dagger, for now, and crossed her arms.

Percy watched the ship in the sky with happiness in his eyes. A blast of wind went through the crowd and chilled everyone to the bone. Reyna looked suspiciously to the sky, wondering if Jason was going to float down.

Percy however looked like someone had walked on his grave or something like it; he had his eyes closed and was beginning to sweat.

"Cheer up Perseus, your friends are on your way here and you look as if someone just kicked your puppy." Reyna said, trying to soothe her partner.

"I just have this weird feeling." Percy muttered a frown on his face. The wind was beginning to pick up and Reyna looked up, expecting the ship to be descending.

The ship wasn't, it was just floating I the middle of the air. The wind was getting stronger around them and Romans were pushed into each other. Thunder was heard and lightning struck, nowhere near them so they were safe. Reyna immediately turned around and began to yell.

"Everyone back to your bunkers! Do not come back out until I say it's okay. Frank, Hazel, stay here." She barked out commands. Everyone scrambled back towards their bunks except for Frank and Hazel who huddled around them.

"What do you think is going on?" Hazel yelled over the sound of thunder. It began to rain hard, soaking all of them to the bone, even Percy who was still standing there with a frown on his face.

"Percy? Are you the one causing this storm?" Reyna asked him. He shook his head.

"This is the feeling I got. Something's not right; it seems as if Zeus is angry for some reason. I don't know what, nothing major has happened. Other than the fact that Gaia is rising." Percy said, the other three barely hearing him over the roar of the wind.

Everything stopped. The wind, the rain, the lightning, and the thunder. The four stood in the Field of Mars utterly confused. The warship was gone and the sky was clear. Percy looked around confused.

"Where did everything go?" He asked. Reyna looked at him in confusion and followed his eyesight.

The Cohorts where all gone, so was the Senate House. The Field of Mars was still in place but everything else disappeared. Reyna could hear everybody trying to control their breathing, but she was oddly calm.

A flash of bright light blinded them for a second before they opened their eyes again. They were inside a green room, a lot like the color of Percy's eyes. They weren't alone though, the four stared at the three new people in front of them.

One was a boy about fifteen with blonde cropped hair and blue eye. He had a scar on his lip like he tried to bite something. He looked familiar to Percy, but he couldn't tell who he was thinking of.

The second boy Percy automatically recognized. He was on his knees, dirty and bloody. He had hair as dark as night all the way to his shoulders, but he didn't look like a girl at all. He had obsidian eyes, Percy couldn't see them but he was sure they held pain. He was pale, olive skin.

The third was one all four hoped they didn't have to deal with. He was sort of like a scarecrow, blonde hair and blue eyes. He wore a toga and held a teddy bear in his hand. All four of the demi-gods there rolled their eyes, Hazel finally seemed to notice her sibling at last and she rushed to him.

"Nico? How are you here? I thought Gaia got you?" Hazel asked, tears forming. Frank walked over and held her hand, Reyna was staring at the boy with the scar and Percy had a suspicion on who he was.

Octavian scowled as he saw them, looking around to see where he was.

"Where are we? I bet you the Greeks are up to this, I told you we couldn't trust them!" Octavian said with a smirk. Percy cleared his throat.

"I am one of those Greeks, Octavian. I advise you to shut your mouth, we are still trying to make sense of the situation here." He said. Octavian backed down.

Reyna ran at Jason and hugged him tightly. Jason looked surprised but became happy when he saw who it was. He hugged back before looking uncomfortable and slowly prying Reyna off.

"Oh gods Jason, don't scare me like that again! I thought you were dead!" Reyna exclaimed, refusing to let the tears fall.

"I don't have my full memories back Reyna, what are we? Because I'm… dating someone and uh…" Jason trailed off.

Reyna laughed at him.

"We didn't date Jason, we were like siblings, getting along one second trying to kill each other the next. Nothing more, it's actually pretty funny you thought so." Reyna said, mischief in her eyes. Jason looked relieved and was about to speak before Reyna stopped him.

"Whoever the girl is, she better not hurt you or else she'll face me." Reyna said coldly. Jason looked surprised before grinning.

"You haven't changed at all." Reyna smirked at him when he said that. Percy stepped up and looked at Jason.

"You must be Jason. Camp Jupiter won't shut up about you." Percy said grinning. Jason relaxed and looked at him.

"And you must be Percy. The campers at Camp-Half Blood all worship you." The two chuckled.

Octavian cleared his throat.

"Will any of you mind telling me where we are?" He asked rudely.

A note appeared as soon as he finished talking. Reyna narrowed her eyes before stepping cautiously towards it. She grabbed it out of the air and began reading it.

"Dear Romans, we have decided to send you here to learn more about the adventures of Perseus Jackson, to give you an idea on how the Greeks act and live, and to find out their role in the Titan War. There will be six books, five in first person one in third person which alternates between demi-gods. Time will be frozen until you finish, and we might add a few people every once in a while. Happy reading! Signed Apollo and Hermes." Reyna frowned.

"Isn't Hermes Mercury?" She asked Percy. He nodded.

A stack of books appeared by Reyna feet and she bent down to see them clearly. She picked up the one on the top.

"It says 'The Lightning Thief'." Percy groaned.

"That was my first quest." Jason and Reyna looked surprised.

"You've had more than one?" They asked at the same time.

Percy smiled and nodded.

"Yes, you'll also learn something about a certain Ambassador of Pluto." Percy said smirking at Nico. He seemed to barely realize his condition and his eyes widened.

He grabbed ambrosia from his back pocket. Reyna looked at him in question.

"What? I had a suspicion that Octavian would charge as soon as the Greeks landed." He said sheepishly. Octavian groaned. Percy walked over and handed it to Nico.

"Here you go Death Breath." Percy said. Nico looked at him with wide eyes.

"You remember?" He whispered. Percy nodded and Nico groaned.

"Sorry," Nico whispered. Percy chuckled.

"I'll get you back later, but for now you've got to rest." Percy said.

"You sound like Sally." Nico said.

"Is that supposed to be an insult?" Percy asked smiling. Nico chuckled and ate the ambrosia. Some of his cuts closed and the bleeding stopped.

"Now that we have that out of the way, I've gotta ask how you got there. The gods aren't as powerful as Gaia are they?" Percy asked confused. Nico's eyes brightened.

"But Gaia's power isn't as great as the Fates." Percy's eyes widened.

"Well if the Fates brought you here we should really read this, even if this is going to give you guy's major blackmail." Percy said cheerfully. Reyna's eyes glinted.

"I hadn't thought of that, thanks Percy." She said. Percy groaned.

Frank and Hazel laughed and stood up.

"Well if we're going to be reading books I think we're going to have to get comfy." Hazel said. Blue bean bags appeared and Percy happily flopped down on one. Reyna looked at the bean bags.

"Couldn't the gods… get something classier?" Reyna asked. Thunder rumbled.

"Don't insult the gods, they're really sensitive." Percy snickered. More thunder. Nico chuckled from his bean-bag.

"You haven't changed at all Perce." Percy grinned at him and looked at Jason.

"I think you already know Octavian, Hazel, and Reyna, that over there is Frank, son of Mars." Frank awkwardly waved at him.

"He might not look like much," Frank called out here, "But he kicks butt when you give him a chance." A 'thank you' was heard here. Hazel giggled.

"Anyways, the sooner we get this over with the better, Reyna can you read please?" Percy asked. Reyna nodded and opened up to the first page. She raised her eyebrow at Percy before reading the chapter title.

"**I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher.**"

Hazel and Frank laughed while Nico looked at Percy.

"Accidentally?" He asked.

Percy blushed and looked away.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"None of us want to." Reyna said darkly.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now.**

"A little too late." Octavian snorted.

**Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"It'll work for a while, but your heritage will catch up to you." Nico said.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

Nico flinched, thinking how Bianca died.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

"Why would a mortal be reading this?" Jason asked.

Percy shrugged.

"I don't know, maybe it's an actual book published somewhere." He smiled.

Fat chance.

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before **_**they **_**sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

"I wish we could just have a few moments of peace." Jason sighed. Percy nodded in agreement.

The two had it worse, for they were the leaders of the two camps, they were supposed to fight together and beat Gaia, they were supposed to give hope to all the other demi-gods and to pretend everything was alright when it wasn't.

In fact Percy was surprised he hadn't broken down yet. Jason was as well.

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"You didn't warn me?" Nico said, trying to lighten the mood.

He failed.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

Nico managed a dry smile.

"No, it's Perry Johnson." Percy snickered.

"I even miss Mr. D." He said wistfully.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

"You'll fit right in." Reyna teased.

Jason frowned. He remembered some things, but he was sure Reyna was never this care-free. Maybe it was because she was spending a lot of time with Percy. He scowled at the thought.

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Why yes, yes you are." Nico said. Percy rolled his eyes.

"Thank you for pointing out the obvious." Nico blinked at him.

Everyone stared at him weirdly. Reyna spoke slowly.

"You do realize you just called yourself troubled?" She asked.

Percy nodded, pleased with himself.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"See? I agree with myself."

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus,**

"Who would be crazy enough to do that?" Reyna exclaimed.

**heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"The Roman stuff sounds interesting, not the Greek though." Reyna said. Percy glared at her.

"I'll have you know the Greeks are awesometacular." Percy grinned proudly. Nico clapped him on the back.

"I have to agree with Percy on here, we're pretty awesome."

Jason snorted.

"Romans pwn all." Reyna agreed.

"Oh really now, so you're dissing the people who have been letting you live with them for months?" Percy taunted. Jason turned red.

"Now you're dissing the people you've lived with for months." Jason smirked.

"Actually I've only been here a week, I barely know anyone outside of Frank, Hazel, and Reyna." Percy said. Jason's jaw dropped.

"And how did you get Praetor ship so fast?" He asked with his jaw clenched.

"They raised me on a shield." Percy said. Jason looked alarmed.

"You've already had the battle?" He asked. All the people there nodded.

"Percy went against Polybotes, man you should've seen him. He defeated him with Terminus…" Frank started babbling.

"Frank honey," Hazel put her hand on his shoulder and he stopped. "You're blabbing." He blushed and looked at Jason.

"So yeah."

Jason looked at Percy with curiosity.

"The campers say you're the best swordsman in 300 years, I'd like to see how good you are later." Jason smirked.

Percy surprised him by smirking back.

**I know—it sounds like torture.**

"What part are we on again?" Nico asked confused.

"The Greek and Roman stuff." Reyna answered.

**Most Yancy field trips were.**

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

"Isn't Mr. Brunner?" Nico asked.

"Yeah, but don't tell them."

"Okay, but why is he?"

"Because it's a house call."

"A house call? What?" Octavian asked.

"I'll explain later." Percy said.

Octavian looked at them suspiciously.

"They're planning on killing us all! Off with their heads!" Octavian yelled.

Percy started humming to the beat of the mash-up glee did, Thriller/Heads Will Roll. It wasn't that bad of a song, plus he ended up watching it because the Super Bowl was on before it.

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"Roman armor and weapons? Why didn't he have Greek?" Nico asked Percy.

"I don't know, maybe he knew about all of this? Maybe he didn't want me finding out?" Percy answered.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

Everyone snorted except Jason, Octavian, and Reyna.

"Please, you meet trouble wherever you go." They said at the same time. Nico turned to the newly couple.

"You went on the quest with him?" Nico asked.

"Yeah, and we found out how much monsters hated him." Frank laughed. Hazel nodded in agreement.

"What about you?" She asked. Nico smiled.

"I've known him for three years." Everyone's eyes widened.

"So he found you when you were ten?" Reyna asked.

Nico's eyes darkened and he didn't answer the question.

**Boy, was I wrong.**

"When are you ever right?" Nico asked.

"I have my moments." Percy protested.

"But they are very rare." Reyna added.

Everyone laughed, except Octavian of course.

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon.**

"What did you do?" Nico asked, curious.

**I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

Everyone laughed, actually including Octavian this time.

"How? What were you aiming for?" Hazel asked. Percy smiled his lop-sided grin.

"I wasn't aiming for anything, someone just told me he bet I couldn't shoot it." Percy said.

"I obviously proved him wrong." Percy finished proudly. Everyone started chuckling again.

"No wonder Annabeth calls you Seaweed Brain." Nico laughed.

Percy saddened but nodded. He couldn't believe he had to read his life story before he could see Annabeth again.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.**

Everyone started laughing again.

"I can see why the Hermes cabin, especially the Stolls, respect you. This would be pranking gold." Jason complimented.

Percy grinned and took a bow.

**And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

"You and the word good should not be in the same sentence." Nico said.

Frank and Hazel started laughing.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover** **in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Peanut butter and ketchup? Who eats that?" Reyna asked. Octavian looked at her insulted.

"I'll have you know it's actually pretty good." Everyone looked at him weirdly. Octavian huffed.

"Don't tell me you've never tried a peanut butter and ketchup sandwich?" Octavian asked. Everyone shook their heads.

"I might eat it if it was blue." Percy blurted.

Nico laughed.

"You'll eat anything that's blue."

Percy grinned sheepishly.

"What kind of last name is Bobofit?" Frank asked curious.

"What kind of last name is Zhang?" Octavian shot back.

"It's Chinese!" Frank protested.

"Don't listen to him Frank, your last name is wonderful." Hazel said.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.**

"That sounds like a faun. Why is a faun at your school?" Reyna asked curious.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out. I'm not just going to blurt out all of Camp's secrets." Percy said. Nico snorted.

"I'm sure Grover wouldn't like how you described him." Percy turned red.

"He would throw tin cans at me and then order for me to pick them up since it was harming the wild." Percy laughed.

"I take it you and Grover are close friends?" Reyna guessed. Percy nodded.

"He went on a few quests with me, oh and he's the Lord of the Wild." Percy explained. Jason raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't see Grover at camp." Percy blinked.

"He had responsibilities as the Lord of the Wild; he can't spend all his time at camp." Percy said. Nico spoke up.

"Plus he was looking for you." Percy blushed.

"Oh stop being so modest Perce." Nico rolled his eyes.

"I thought Faunus was the Lord of the Wild?" Reyna asked. Percy and Nico darkened.

"It's a long story. It'll be in one of the books." Percy spoke darkly.

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

Nico sighed.

"Way to blow his cover."

"You know he loves enchiladas though." Percy pointed out. Nico chuckled.

"Do not take his enchiladas unless you wish to be trampled." He warned.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Which you are going to ignore anyway right?" Nico asked. Percy nodded.

Hazel whispered to Frank.

"I haven't seen Nico this happy since ever." Frank nodded in agreement.

"It must be his Greek side."

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Please do, I hate bullies." Reyna mumbled.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"Not as much as Tyson." Percy snickered.

Nico laughed as he remembered the story Percy told him about Tyson's battle cry.

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

"Aw."

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.**

"Looking back on it, deck and decked is a pretty weird way of describing punching someone. I've never really got it. I mean when you think of the word 'deck' you think of like the patio or something, not really the punching 'deck'." Nico said.

The rest looked thoughtful.

"That is a pretty good argument, but don't you think punch is a weird word too? I mean when you think of 'punch', do you think of the physical action or the drink?" Reyna asked.

"I think of the physical action." Jason spoke up.

"I think of blue punch." Percy sighed dreamily.

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

"I sense foreshadowing!" Hazel said.

"I don't really like it when people foreshadow, it ruins the surprise and makes me want to skip straight to the action." Reyna frowned.

"You read books? Don't you have dyslexia?" Percy asked confused.

"No, why? Do you have dyslexia?" Reyna asked.

Percy nodded.

"You see almost all Greeks have dyslexia because we're hard wired for Ancient Greek." Percy explained. Reyna nodded in understanding.

"Not many of us have dyslexia, but a lot of us have ADHD." She said.

"That's your instincts that keep you alive during your fights." Nico nodded.

"Back to the books though, do you guys skip to the last page and read the last paragraph or sentence? The one time I did that I found out there was no more District Twelve." Nico pouted.

**(Extremely OOC characters coming in a few seconds.)**

"District Twelve? Don't you mean District Nine?" Jason asked confused.

"Don't tell me neither of you have heard of The Hunger Games Trilogy!" Nico sighed.

"I heard the movie is coming out in 2012." Frank said.

"Yeah, the last book is coming out this fall." Nico said excitedly. **(1)**

"Can't wait, but how are we supposed to buy it without adding some unwanted attention?" Frank asked. Nico thought for a while.

"I don't care I just need to find out if she loves Peeta or Gale!" Nico cried.

Octavian mumbled something. Nico narrowed his eyes.

"What was that?" He asked. Octavian glared at him.

"I said I ship Hawtniss." He said. Nico spluttered.

"What kind of name is that?" He exclaimed.

"Hawthorne and Katniss of course. Hawtniss. Or Everthorne. Gale-vergreen. Gatniss. Kale." Octavian said. Nico gasped.

"How dare you? Peeniss all the way!" The others tried to stop their giggling.

"Peeniss?" Frank asked.

"It's better than Keeta." Nico said. Frank sighed.

"I've always shipped Fatniss." Octavian and Nico looked at Frank oddly.

"Fatniss?" They asked at the same time. Frank rolled his eyes.

"Finnick and Katniss of course! Kinnick is weird so I call them Fatniss. Or Odaireen. Odair and Everdeen." Frank said proudly.

Percy spoke up.

"You guys are all wrong. Katniss belongs to Cato. Catniss and Kato FTW!" Percy yelled.

"SUHT UP! WE ALL KNOW THAT KATNISS LOVES SENECCA!" Reyna yelled.

"You guys could at least pick canon pairings." Hazel sighed.

"Well since Katniss is a strong woman she should be with someone equally strong. I'm betting she gets with Gale." Reyna said. Nico smiled.

"Alright everyone put in your bets." He said.

Frank went next.

"Well since Finnick has to be madly in love with Annie, I'm going with Peeta. Just because he's been madly in love with her since she was young."

"I don't know what you guys are talking about, but I'm siding with Frank. Peeta." Hazel said.

Jason spoke.

"I'm gonna side with Reyna here even though I've never heard of The Hunger Games. If Katniss is a strong woman, she'll need someone who can keep up with her. Gale." He said.

"I'm going with Gale; they've helped each other survive for years! GATNISS FOREVR!" Octavian said.

"I'm going with Peeta since he's the only one who truly understands what she's been through, other than Finnick. But like Frank said he's with Annie so yeah..." Percy said.

Nico made the final one.

"Peeta of course! The two are cute together, the strong woman and the weak fluffy man." He said.

"That's three against four; we'll just have to wait until the book comes out." Nico smirked. Reyna smirked back at him.

"May I remind you that he's been abducted by the Capitol? He might not even be alive!" Reyna cackled. Nico narrowed his eyes.

"Don't you dare say that again."

"Um guys as much as I love The Hunger Games can we start reading again?" Percy asked.

"Wait, you said you read the books, but how? You're dyslexic." Reyna pointed out.

"The Greeks are deceiving us!" Octavian went back to his annoying self. Percy rolled his eyes.

"I had a copy made in Ancient Greek." Reyna nodded. Frank spoke up.

"One more question? Which District do you guys want to live?" Frank squealed. Nico's eyes brightened.

"Well I think I would like District 13 since its underground, but we haven't heard much of it yet so I'm not sure." Nico said.

"I think District Two would be… nice." Octavian said. Reyna nodded in agreement.

"We could train to be Careers!" Reyna said excitedly.

"CAREER PACK!" Octavian and Reyna hi-fived.

"I think I'd be in District Four. I don't know if I'd be in the Career Pack, it'd be pretty dangerous because of my Fatal Flaw." Percy wondered. Reyna asked a question.

"What's you Fatal Flaw?"

"Personal loyalty, I wouldn't be able to kill my Career Pack so I think I'll fly solo." Percy said.

"I think I'll side with Octavian and Reyna. Is the Career Pack good?" Jason asked. Nico scowled.

"No! They're trained to win and kill." Octavian and Reyna's eyes sparkled.

"Exactly." Jason shrugged.

"I'll still be with them, you never can stop learning different ways to kill people." Percy twitched.

"I think I would be in District Eleven." Frank said.

"You just want to meet Rue's family." Octavian snorted.

"From what I've heard District Twelve is the mining district, so I think I'll go there." Hazel said hesitantly. Frank pouted.

"That's the poorest District!" Reyna interrupted them.

"As much as I like this conversation let's go back to the book."

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

"Echoey isn't a word." Reyna said matter-of-factly.

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Longer." Jason said. Percy snickered.

"You do know you guys called our parents really old?" Nico laughed.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top,**

Percy shuddered.

**And started telling us how it was a grave marker, a **_**stele, **_**for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting,**

"Kind of? Try extremely!" Reyna protested.

**But everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

"I have a bad feeling about that one." Hazel said.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"Nervous breakdown?" Jason raised an eyebrow. Percy smiled sheepishly.

"It wasn't _all_ my fault! I got help from a few other students." Percy said evilly.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.**

"Oh no, that's Nico." Percy said.

"Exactly! Wait what?"

**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

Nico froze.

"Wait a minute is that who I think it is?" Nico asked Percy.

Percy nodded and Nico paled.

"She was your first monster?" He exclaimed.

"She's a monster?" Frank asked. Percy looked at Nico annoyed.

"Yes she is. I'm not spoiling anything else." He said.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight,**

"That was horrible." Percy muttered.

**I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious,**

"Here it comes." Nico sighed.

**And said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Knew it." Nico muttered.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

"Because it's so interesting." Hazel said.

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you **_**shut up**_**?"**

"You go Percy!" Hazel cheered.

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"Of course it did." Jason laughed.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

"One must not tell lies, Mr. Jackson." Nico said smiling.

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"Of course it's that one." Nico groaned.

"Now before we continue, promise you won't make fun of me for the next few sentences, this was before I knew anything about the gods."

Everyone promised.

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he **_**did **_**this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god,** **and—"**

Everyone looked at Percy like he just fell down from Mars. Not the gods Mars, but Mars Mars. You get what I mean!

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

_At least someone has a brain. _Everyone thought.

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead.**

"I never understood that, how did Saturn not know he was eating a rock?" Hazel asked. Reyna thought for a while before answering.

"I think Saturn didn't really look at what he was eating. He was probably rushing because he didn't want any of the gods getting away." Reyna answered.

"Or Saturn knew and saved the best." Jason boasted. Nico, Hazel, and Percy glared at him.

"You know I think we should have a contest on who has the most powers." Reyna spoke up.

"That way all of you guys would stop arguing." Frank said.

"Magnificent idea. Just warning you now, you better bring some ambrosia and nectar." Jason smirked.

"Someone has an ego~." Percy said. Nico and Hazel laughed.

"I think we should split into teams, since Zeus and Poseidon hate each other a lot more, Jason will be on one team and Percy on the other. Jason you choose first." Reyna ordered.

"I choose Nico." Jason said. Nico groaned.

"Great, now we're going to lose." Jason looked at him confused.

"Aren't you super powerful or something?" He asked.

Nico ignored the question.

"And looks like I'm with my buddy Haze! Welcome to the club." Percy smiled. Hazel rolled her eyes.

"We'll have the battle after this chapter. Or should we read one more before?" Reyna asked.

"We should wait another chapter; we do need our rest y'know?" Percy said.

"Or you're just afraid you're going to lose." Jason coughed.

Percy gladly ignored him.

**And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

"You know sometimes I wonder what if the Zeus never tricked his dad. Would the gods and goddesses in there mate and create their own family? Like what if Hades hooked up with Hera, or if my dad hooked up with Demeter?" Percy asked.

"Would the Titans still be in charge?" Nico asked. Percy nodded.

"And Zeus was just living in hiding, but then he does make Kronos barf his sisters and brothers, would Zeus still be king? Would Hades be married to Hera instead or Persephone? Would my dad have had me if he had Demeter? It's just something you have to think about." Percy said.

"It'd be… different." Hazel said uncertain. Everyone nodded.

"Just something to haunt your thoughts until you can't get it out. And then you'd be forever thinking what would happen if it did turn out like that." Percy said, grinning innocently.

"You give me headaches." Reyna muttered.

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"Well that's an easy way to explain it."

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

"Hey, no need to be so disrespectful!" Reyna said.

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Busted!" Hazel said.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

"That's unattractive." Octavian said.

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"Or horse ears." Percy snickered. Nico smirked.

"Horse ears?" Reyna asked. Jason caught on.

"Oh, it's Ch-"

"SH!" Percy yelled.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"If it wasn't for Annabeth you wouldn't know anything." Nico said. Percy stuck out his tongue.

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine,**

"Mustard? I always knew it was bad for your stomach!" Percy exclaimed.

"I hate mustard. It's disgusting." Frank said.

"There's nothing bad about mustard." Octavian muttered.

"Says the boy who eats a peanut butter and ketchup sandwich." Reyna mumbled.

**Which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"Ah Chiron, he really needs advice on how to change subjects." Percy said.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"They always do." Reyna laughed.

"We do not!" All the boys said. Reyna raised her eyebrow.

"You guys just argued about who Katniss, a fictional character, should end up with. That's a girl's job!" Reyna exclaimed.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

"That makes you sound really old." Nico said.

"Says the guy who was born in the 1930's." Percy said. Everyone looked at Nico who grumbled.

"I'll explain later."

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

"How is it your polite to Chiron but never to the gods?" Nico asked. Percy shrugged while everyone gaped at him.

"I can't say I'm surprised, I always imagined him the kind of person who could get under anyone's skin." Reyna shook her head.

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"He has seen everything." Jason muttered.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

"You have a way with words."

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

"It's for your own good." Hazel said.

"I know that now." Percy nodded.

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever **_**lived, **_**and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

The Roman's eyes widened.

"That sounds pretty hard, I think we should have a class like that." Reyna said.

"Great, now this book is giving Reyna ideas." Jason muttered.

"Wait until the introduce camp." Percy grinned.

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life.**

"Really?" Reyna asked with her eyebrows raised.

Percy grinned cheekily at her.

"Actually when I started dating Annabeth I moved it up to a B-." Nico gaped at him.

"Huh, I guess there are advantages of dating the smartest girl at camp." Percy stuck his tongue out.

"Smartest?" Reyna asked interested.

"Yeah, daughter of Athena, or Minerva." Percy explained. Reyna's eyes twinkled.

"I think I'll get along with her." Jason laughed.

"Trust me you will, she's a great fighter." Jason said. Percy smiled.

**No—he didn't expect me to be **_**as good; **_**he expected me to be **_**better. **_**And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

"Gods, you should've seen the grade got for my writing test, I got a one!" Percy said. **(2)**

Nico burst out laughing.

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"Probably." Nico shrugged.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas.**

"Why is my dad so mad?" Jason asked.

**We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"Ok, so Neptune and Jupiter are fighting?" Jason asked.

Percy nodded.

"I've always wanted to ask this, but why is Neptune low in your standards? At the Greek camp he is one of the most important gods, and no I'm not trying to boast." Percy said. Reyna hesitated.

"We don't like him very much because, well one we don't use the sea as much, and two… he's too powerful for our liking." Reyna admitted. Percy raised an eyebrow.

"So you don't like him because he's powerful? You should consider yourselves lucky, my father is not as sensitive as the other gods, or by now you would've felt his fury at being ignored." Percy said seriously.

Reyna paled.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from **_**that**_** school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"I don't think it worked Percy." Nico said.

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

"Understatement of the century." Hazel laughed. Percy pouted at her.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

Nico laughed.

"That is a lot like Grover, thinking of food in the most random and serious times. Kind of how you want to laugh in serious situations." **(3)**

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

"You're too nice." Reyna scowled.

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

A lot of people looked sad, thinking about what happened to their mortal parent or siblings. Percy realized how lucky he was for his mom to still be alive and to care about him.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"He's interesting…" Octavian said.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

"I don't like her." Reyna said gritting her teeth.

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"How do you know all this stuff?" Frank asked while laughing. Percy smiled.

"I'm a special boy."

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

"And this is when your powers kick in."

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

Everyone laughed.

"She got what she deserved!" Reyna said smiling happily.

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester.**

"What monster is she?" Jason asked. He really wanted to know who his first monster was to compare it to his.

**"Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"If I learned anything from being in the Hermes cabin, it's to not guess your punishment." Nico said seriously.

"You were in the Hermes cabin?" Hazel asked. Nico nodded.

"I was unclaimed. All unclaimed campers go to the Hermes cabin, we don't have any Cohorts." Hazel gasped.

"That's horrible, if we had it here I would be alone." She said. Nico shrugged.

"Percy is alone, so is Thalia." Jason's eyes sparkled.

"She's my sister." Reyna gasped.

"You have a sister?" She asked. She sounded hurt.

"I didn't know if she was still alive." Jason defended.

"Huh, I guess I can see the resemblance." Nico said.

"They have the same eyes." Percy said.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. **_**I **_**pushed her."**

"Almost as loyal as you." Nico mumbled.

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

"She sounds horrible."

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—**_**will**_—**stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

"I wonder if he'll go tell Mr. Brunner." Nico said.

"Of course he'll tell Mr. Brunner, if he hadn't I wouldn't—" He cut himself off. Everyone was looking at him.

"Um, can we read please?"

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "**_**Now**_**."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

"Now I want to deck her in the face." Hazel whispered.

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"That stare is horrible." Nico shuddered. Hazel nodded in agreement.

"You've seen it?" He asked.

"He used it on a few monsters, I was shocked they didn't vaporize instantly." She admitted. Frank laughed in agreement and Percy turned red.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

"Because she's a monster." Nico explained.

"I know that now Nico-kins." Percy said smiling.

Nico scowled.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"I don't think so." Jason muttered..

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

"Biggest mistake ever."

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"Really? I need to have a chat with him when I get back." Nico said.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

"You wish."

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

"Great, no witnesses." Reyna muttered.

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

"Uh oh."

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

"Because she did want to pulverize it." Hazel explained gently.

Percy rolled his eyes.

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

"The second time you've been polite, the first time you've done the safe thing. What happened to the Percy I knew?" Nico asked, wiping a fake tear away.

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

"Get away with what?" Reyna asked confused.

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"Oh she is."

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

"The third time you've been polite! But who's counting?"

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

"Confess to what?" Reyna wondered.

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

"You usually don't know what people are talking about." Nico said.

"Hey!"

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

"If the Stolls were here, they would be kissing your feet." Nico said.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on **_**Tom Sawyer **_**from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"Now they'd be hugging you."

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

"Here it comes!" Jason whispered.

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"A Dirae!" Reyna exclaimed.

"How did you get out of this alive?" Hazel asked worried.

_That's a lot harder than my first monster. _Jason thought.

**Then things got even stranger.**

"How could it get stranger than this?" Nico asked.

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

"A pen?" Jason asked.

Everyone who knew about Riptide laughed.

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

"Please don't get hurt." Hazel whispered.

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword**

"Oh." Jason said.

"Do you still have it?" He asked.

Percy nodded and took out Riptide. He uncapped it.

"Awesome."

—**Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"You must've been terrified." Hazel said sympathetically.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

"Naturally?" Jason asked. Nico nodded for Percy.

"He currently holds the best swordsman for the last 300 years at Camp." Percy blushed. Reyna looked at him impressed.

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. **_**Hisss!**_

"You use a lot of water references." Octavian pointed out.

"It's in my blood." Percy said roudly.

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan.**

"See? Sand castle. The beach?" Octavian said. Everyone groaned.

"We see your point Octavian."

**She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

"What? You're actually letting the Mist affect you?" Jason asked.

"I was confused and I wanted to know what the Hades had just happened!" Percy defended himself.

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"Only you Perce."

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

"Sadly no. Welcome to the world of Greek Mythology Percy, we've been waiting for you." Nico said seriously.

Percy started cracking up.

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

"Either Zeus is pissed you got away, or Poseidon is pissed that you got attacked." Frank said.

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head.**

"That's a finny visual." Hazel said.

**Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Mrs. Kerr? Is that the Mist's doing?" Reyna asked.

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our **_**teacher.**_ **Duh!"**

"Yep, the Mist. Gotta love it." Percy said smiling.

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

"Rude."

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

"Grover is a horrible liar." Nico said.

Percy nodded in agreement.

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me. "Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

"He really is." Reyna mused.

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

"Ha." Octavian snorted.

Everyone glared at him.

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

"Chiron can lie thought." Nico nodded.

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"And that's the end of the chapter." Reyna said.

"That took forever!" Percy groaned. He stood up and pushed his bean bag.

"I have to talk to Nico, so will one of you gods you know?" Percy asked the air.

Percy and Nico flashed out of the room only to end up in one that looked suspiciously like a kitchen.

"Hey look a note." Nico said nervously. He picked it up and began to read it.

"When you finish your talk the others will come here for a little break. There's food in the fridge. Signed Nobody." Nico read.

Percy stared at Nico who laughed nervously.

"What did Gaia do to you?"

**I heard The Son of Neptune takes place in 2010, Mockingjay came out that August.**

**In Texas it was called the Writing TAKS test, you would take it in fourth grade. One was the worst, four was the best.**

**We've all wanted to do that at least ONCE.**

**A/N: And the next chapter shall be up on Wednesday. I don't care if you review or not, I'm going to upload anyway. I write these for my entertainment, and for yours. I hope you liked it, and hopefully there weren't too many mistakes.**

**I will update my other stories soon, don't worry I'm not giving up on them. Well not giving up on most of them. Maybe Going Under… **

**Anyways, until Wednesday.**

**Bye.**


	2. Socks of Death? Really?

**A/N: Wow, I actually feel like writing a lot. That's a change.**

**The font seems small to me, eh I'll get over it.**

**Anyways, it's 9:54 and it's Saturday July 7, which means I started working on this right after I uploaded the first chapter.**

**You're welcome.**

**Anyways I'm listening to Pierce the Veil right now, not that you care. I just thought I'd mention it.**

**Huh, writing what I'm thinking is actually pretty nice. I thought it would be boring and I would give up on it soon.**

**Someone asked if I could bring in people like Piper or Leo, but may I remind you the title? If any characters are coming in, they'll be Roman. I'm even considering bringing Lupa, maybe even some Roman gods.**

**If Greeks are coming in the story, it won't be until the Demi-God Files or The Last Olympian.**

**That was my attempt on forcing you guys to stop asking that. Is it going to work?**

**I don't think so. A lot of you guys are going to beg and beg, I'll cave in and bring in some Greeks, and then I'll fell like a failure because I'm too nice.**

**I know the drill people.**

**For now though, I'm going to be tough and mean.**

**So no, sorry! In fact I'm not even sorry. Deal with it.**

**Gods, I feel awful after writing that.**

**Curse my niceness.**

**I'm starting to ramble, even though I actually do wanna ramble, I'm going to stop here.**

**I have to come up with some clever idea on what Gaia did to our poor Nico-kins. He's one of my favorite characters! Do you know how hard that is? Well I did write Percy going throw child abuse, but that was different.**

**No it wasn't.**

**Yes it was! Stupid other personality.**

**I honestly do feel like I have multi-personalities.**

**Now before you go saying, '**_**It's not funny that you're pretending.' **_**I'm not pretending. I honestly hear voices in my head.**

**Is it the gods? Is it my paranoia? Is it someone who was placed in my head?**

**We all know the logical answer is the last one… **

**Actually the logical one would be the second one.**

**Let's go with the first.**

**Now, characters will/might be OOC, but they'll have their in-character moments… It's just way more fun making them OOC. You can't blame me! :3**

**Crap it's freaking 3:20 A.M. and I'm still not asleep. I've been writing this chapter for **_**hours**_**, and now I'm listening to depressing music.**

**Awesome right?**

**This chapter upsets me because it's not long… :l**

**Now it's July 8****th**** 5:34.**

**Hehe now it's 8:16 P.M. and I'm listening to Skrillex.**

**Not so depressing anymore!**

**Oh, warning.**

**OOC characters VERY possible, drama filled chapter and a weird Jason coming your way!**

**Now without further Ado, I present you:**

**Romans Read The Lightning Thief!**

_Previously On: Romans Read The Lightning Thief_

"_That took forever!" Percy groaned. He stood up and pushed his bean bag._

"_I have to talk to Nico, so will one of you gods you know?" Percy asked the air._

_Percy and Nico flashed out of the room only to end up in one that looked suspiciously like a kitchen._

"_Hey look a note." Nico said nervously. He picked it up and began to read it._

"_When you finish your talk the others will come here for a little break. There's food in the fridge. Sighed Nobody." Nico read._

_Percy stared at Nico who laughed nervously._

"_What did Gaia do to you?"_

"What do you think they're talking about?" Hazel asked as she got comfortable on her bean bag. She scooted closer to Frank who put an arm around her. She smiled.

"It could be anything really," Reyna shrugged, "I think they're talking about either camp, or what happened with Gaia. It's surprising to see Nico alive actually." She admitted. Hazel flinched.

"I have a feeling that when we finish these books, he'll be her prisoner again." Hazel whispered.

"You know what's weird, we didn't really freak out when we found out Nico was a Greek demi-god." Frank pointed out. Hazel glared at him.

"He's still family, Greek or Roman." She said firmly. Octavian laughed.

"He's probably been selling our secrets to the Greek camp." Jason glared at him.

"None of the Greeks knew about the Romans until I had the suspicion that Percy ended up here." Jason said. Octavian rolled his eyes.

"You told the Greeks about us, that is the ultimate betrayal. Are you even Roman anymore _Grace_?" He sneered. Jason looked like he was ready to punch Octavian's face in.

"The Greeks gave me a home, the least I could do was help them find their leader." Jason replied. Octavian got a glint in his eye.

"You ignored the question. Are you a Roman or Greek? Make your choice." Octavian said. The room went quiet as the Romans waited for his answer. Reyna watched quietly.

She hadn't seen Jason in months, a person could change greatly. What if Jason decided to stay at the Greek camp? Jason was the one who comforted her when she almost went insane from all the pressure on her shoulders, he lessened her pain. He was her rock, the person who she lived for.

She didn't have a relationship, her only sister was with the Amazons, and her mother couldn't visit because she was a goddess. Her father… she would rather not talk about it. She could feel her eyes darken at the thought of her father.

"Well Jason?" Octavian asked smugly. Jason looked torn.

He had a girlfriend at the Greek camp, he probably made new friends too. Why would he need a daughter of Bellona? There were plenty of war children he could have by his side. If he wanted to, he could probably have every girl as his best friend. Or as a lover.

But she didn't have that relationship with him, the two were special. They didn't like each other, they cared for each other. Like the big brother little sister situation. He watched her back, and she hurt everyone who disrespected Jason. She couldn't imagine camp without him.

He was Roman, he would always be Roman. He promised he wouldn't leave her alone, he swore on his life.

_Promises are meant to be broken._

_He lost his memories, he doesn't remember._ She reminded herself.

_But he'll remember eventually. _She tried to cheer herself up.

But what if he didn't? He wouldn't remember all the times he held her while she cried, he wouldn't remember the times they dissed each other, he wouldn't remember the times they beat monsters asses. He wouldn't remember anything.

None of the good times.

Reyna could feel tears threatening to fall and she blinked rapidly. She turned her gaze to Jason who was staring at the floor. Hazel and Frank sat quietly and still waited for an answer.

Octavian had a smirk on his face. Reyna could practically tell that he had planned this all. If Jason went with the Greeks… they would need a new Praetor. Would Percy stay? That was highly unlikely, his family was the Greek camp.

She froze.

Family. The Roman camp was Jason's family, they knew him longer than anyone else. Family was the most important thing. Jason had told her that. He would always come home, and Camp Jupiter was home.

He was Roman, not Greek. And he knew it too. He couldn't bear to say it though.

But why?

Did the Greeks really care for him? The Romans weren't that nice to Percy, but Percy was a laid-back carefree guy. Which meant the Greek camp was like that. They accepted Jason immediately, and they befriended him. Jason was Greek.

But he was Roman too.

Like Percy.

Percy was a true warrior of Rome, he was their savior during the battle a few days ago. He proved himself on the battle field, and on his quest. He was Roman.

He was Roman because the campers followed his orders without question. He was Roman because he radiated discipline and order during Senate meetings. He was Roman because he was Roman.

_That didn't make any sense._ She told herself.

_It wasn't supposed to, but it's the truth. Percy is Roman, because he's like any other Roman! But he's also Greek, because he's Greek! It makes perfect sense._

But if they ask Percy if he was Greek of Roman, what would he say? His flaw was loyalty, he would never be able to betray his family and friends.

His family was the Greeks, his friends were the Romans.

Jason never told her his flaw, but she was determined to find out. Reyna looked at Jason who was staring at the floor in concentration.

It didn't matter what he chose, because she was his family. Family stuck together, even if they were on different coasts. Thousands of miles away.

Family is forever. Which was why…

Which was why Jason _had_ to choose the Romans.

It _did_ matter what he chose, no matter how much she tries to convince herself. Jason belonged in Camp Jupiter, and if he didn't realize that… If he doesn't realize it…

Then he was never Roman.

Her mouth forms a line and she sits straight. She clears her throat and looks at Jason.

"Are you going to answer or not?" She asked coldly. She hadn't meant to, but her emotions were showing.

She was ice.

Her insides were slowly freezing with each passing second he didn't answer. Fear was eating her inside out, and soon she would lose it. She would become unstable, and it was all because of him.

It was like the death of your friend, except the friend is alive. It was horrible, and she was doing all she could to keep her from bursting into tears.

Was the Jason she knew alive or dead?

She stared at Jason.

_The Jason I knew never showed emotion. The Jason I knew is dead._

_The Jason I know is a good talker. The Jason I know is alive._

_The Jason I knew would never hesitate to answer a question involving his loyalties. The Jason I knew is dead._

_The Jason I know would never let Octavian have the final word._

_Is my Jason still alive?_

"Are you the Jason I know, or are you a shell of him?" Reyna whispered. Jason looked up and met her eyes. Tears were know running freely down her cheeks, and she didn't bother to wipe them away.

She stood up and so did Jason. She watched him closely with her eyes.

Jason opened his mouth but then closed it. Reyna watched him before shaking her head. She let out a laugh.

"You know Jason, I honestly thought that we were your family. Were you lying when you said you would never leave me alone? Remember when you said that nothing separates family? What are we to you Jason? If we aren't family, are we enemies? Are we the ones who are always there for you, but you toss them away like dirty laundry? You can't just throw me away Jason, I was there for you since the beginning!" Reyna was screaming at the end.

Jason flinched. He tried speaking but Reyna caught him off.

"I was _always _there for you. I saved your lousy ass over a hundred times! How do you repay me Jason? You replace me. You replace all of us." Hazel was crying into Frank's shoulder when Reyna finished.

"Hazel isn't crying because it's a lie Jason," Reyna stated coldly, "She's crying because it's the truth. The cold hard truth." She finished.

"Then why can't you just forget about me and move on?" Jason asked.

Reyna started laughing again.

"I will never forget you, no matter how much I want to. Whenever someone will bring up your name, I'll think of all the great times we had, none of the bad. I'll be forced to think positively about you, when honestly? I want to rip your heart out and feed it to wolves." Reyna growled.

"But at the same time, I'm _clinging _to the small hope that you will come to your senses, and that you will remember. Then you'll realize how foolish you've been and run back. But I know that won't happen. But it's the only thing keeping me sane Jason." Reyna took a deep breath.

"Our relationship is broken, it's scattered all throughout the floor. The thing is Jason, I can pick up all those pieces, and I can fix it. I know I can, we can forget all about this." Reyna said.

"Then why don't you?" Jason asked quietly.

"Because… What's so good about picking them up anyway? You're practically begging for me to do it, but what if I don't even want to?" Reyna asked.

She hoped each word she said was like a knife in the back.

"The worse thing about this, is that this whole time, you've never spoken up and said that you were Roman. We created something beautiful in our relationship, but you destroyed it. There's nothing else to do now but except the facts. The truth." Reyna said.

"But I want to listen to those beautiful lies _so bad_." Reyna turned around and faced the wall, breathing heavily.

"I need to be alone." She whispered. She hoped the gods could hear her and they were sympathetic enough. She felt a warm feeling go through her and know she was being flashed out. When she opened her eyes she was standing in a field of flowers, varying of colors from pink to dark blue.

It was beautiful.

And that's why she hated it.

She sighed in frustration.

"Please Reyna, you do have to know I did it for the best." A melodic voice spoke from behind her. She whipped her head around and came face to face with the most beautiful woman in the world.

She had curly blonde hair that went to her shoulders and beautiful baby blue eyes. She wore a long light pink dress that flowed in the light breeze.

The woman was not wearing any make-up, she was all natural. Reyna felt herself smile and cut it out.

"Lady Venus?" Reyna asked uncertainly. Venus smiled at her before offering a hug. Reyna looked at her in shock. Venus turned her smile into a sad one.

"I've faced heartbreak before as well Reyna, though you wouldn't think I would've." Venus assured her.

Reyna accepted the hug. Venus rubbed her back and Reyna laughed into her shoulder.

"I wouldn't think the goddess of love would help me. Why are you anyway? I don't love Jason that way." Reyna asked confused.

Venus laughed and showed her white pearly teeth. She clapped her hands together and summoned hot chocolate.

"All girls need hot chocolate when they're going through a heartbreak or a funk." Venus said. Reyna sipped her cup and felt a little better.

"Jewelry is most definitely not a girl's best friend, it's chocolate." Venus smiled.

Reyna nodded in agreement.

"For your question, I am the goddess of love, which means all type of love, the brotherly love or the sisterly love. The love love, the like like, all of that sweet stuff." Venus said.

Reyna smiled bitterly.

"Yeah, it's sweet." Venus looked at her sadly.

"I had nothing to do with yours and Jason's relationship though, that was Ianvs. I apologize for that, he always loved when people made the wrong decisions." Reyna frowned and surprised seeped into her eyes.

"Wrong decisions?" Reyna asked interested. Venus blinked.

"I wasn't supposed to say that. Anyways, you shouldn't worry you'll find 'the one' and a new friend in time. Just know that love has not abandoned you." Venus said. Reyna scowled.

"I was naïve, I was young. I won't make the same mistake." She said. Venus looked her in the eyes.

"What mistake? Trusting someone? Trust is everything Reyna, you can't give up on that or love. And a little advice, there's no such thing as too young." Venus winked.

Reyna heard something behind her and turned around, only to find nothing. She turned back to find Venus gone.

"Did I imagine that?" Reyna whispered to herself. She sighed and walked over to a patch of white lilies. She sat down ripped one from its roots. She put it in her hair and smiled.

_I remember Hylla used to pick every flower she could find and put it in my hair. She would always say I looked like a princess. _Reyna thought happily.

"Never thought I'd see you wearing a flower." A teasing voice came from behind her. She stood up and reached for her dagger, before slowly putting it down as she looked at the person in front of her.

"J-Jason? What are you doing here?" She asked coldly. Jason looked at her curiously.

"What do you mean? You ran away from the celebration party and I followed you here. Where is here actually?" Jason asked looking around.

"Celebration party?" Reyna asked. Jason nodded.

"We just defeated Krios? You can't forget that easily can you Rey?" Jason asked. Reyna looked at him in disbelief.

"N-n-no. The Greeks, the ship, the book! Your girlfriend… and…" Reyna trailed off.

What was going on?

"This isn't funny Jason, you better stop pretending." Reyna said calmly.

"I'm not pretending Rey, what are you talking about anyway? Greeks? Aren't they dead?" Jason asked confused.

Reyna gasped. A million thoughts running through her head. The gods can zap them into a random place with a bunch of books from the past, right?

Can they bring her Jason back?

Is her Jason back?

"I," Reyna smiled. "I've got some explaining to do. I'm ready to go back." Reyna spoke to the air. She held onto Jason's hand and was flashed back to the room.

"Reyna!" Hazel shouted as soon as she saw her. She hugged her, completely oblivious to the fact that Jason was there.

"There was this bright flash and then Jason was gone, so we started freaking out, then Octavian started screaming things about the Greeks deceiving us, then Nico and Percy didn't come back, and I'm talking way too much right now!" Hazel said. She still had dry tears on her face and Reyna smiled sadly.

"Calm down, Jason's gone but Jason is here." Reyna explained. Hazel looked confused then she saw Jason.

"You bastard!" Hazel yelled before punching him square in the nose.

"Hazel! It's not Jason Jason, it's Jason!" Reyna exclaimed.

"What?" Hazel asked.

"I mean, this is Jason before his disappearance." Reyna said. Hazel was shocked.

"You mean? But how?" She asked. Reyna shrugged.

"If the gods can send us books from the past, why can't they send us people?" Hazel nodded thoughtfully. She turned to Jason and smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry about that, I meant to punch the other you." She said. Jason looked confused.

"I'll explain everything, maybe the two boys will get back soon." Reyna muttered. She looked at Jason.

"Um, you went missing in October. It turns out there's a Greek camp in New York, that's why we're forbidden from going there. Greeks and Romans don't tend to get along. But Juno decided to switch you and a son of Poseidon, Percy Jackson, the leaders of both of the camps to the opposite camp. You got sent to theirs, Percy got sent to ours. You've been at the Greek camp for months, Percy has been in the Roman for a week. Apparently you've got a girlfriend and you're travelling on a huge war ship to Camp Jupiter for a prophecy that has to be done." Reyna finished. Jason gaped at her.

"I have a girlfriend?" Reyna huffed.

"That's what you got out of that sentence?" She asked irritated.

"Hey guys, I think Nico and Percy are coming back." Frank said.

A bright flash covered all of them and suddenly they were in a kitchen. Percy was watching Nico worriedly as he ate cereal. Reyna shrugged and went up to Percy.

"What are we doing here?" She asked. Percy smiled.

"Mini-break. We'll get back to the book after this. Why does Jason look so confused?" Percy asked. Reyna grimaced.

"Uh, the Jason that was with us went back and the gods gave us the Jason before the disappearance." Reyna said.

"Oh." Percy said. Jason was eyeing Percy, obviously annoyed.

"You're wearing my toga." Percy laughed.

"The bed sheet? You can have it." He said teasingly. Jason turned red.

"Whoa there, I'm just pulling your leg. Well not really since your leg is over there and I'm over here… and I'm using both of my hands to talk. Unless I'm pulling your leg with my leg, which I guess it's long but not that long to reach your leg. What were we talking about again?" Percy asked confused.

"Just eat while you can, I can't believe you guys aren't attacking your food yet." Nico said with a mouthful of cereal.

"Has Demeter gotten to you Nico? I can't remember you eating this much cereal!" Percy exclaimed.

"Wait, the Ambassador of Pluto?" Jason asked. Percy nodded.

"He's Greek, so am I. Hi, I'm Percy Jackson son of Poseidon. Nice to meet you again." He asked cheerfully. Jason looked at Reyna.

"This is the leader?" He asked. Percy gasped and put his hand to his heart.

"He might not look like much, but he can be pretty smart when he wants to, and he's a demon when he's fighting." Reyna said grudgingly.

"Hmm, how good?" Jason asked, his eyes glinting. Percy laughed.

"Your other self said the other thing!" Jason looked confused.

"My other self?" He asked. Reyna grimaced.

"The Jason from my time, the one from spending time with the Greeks." She said. Percy looked at her in worry.

"You okay?" He mouthed. Reyna nodded and turned away.

"Well I guess we should eat, Octavian would you please stop trying to kill Nico? I'm pretty sure he can tell you're right behind him and he's waiting for the perfect time to strike." Reyna told Octavian, who had his dagger raised over Nico's head. He brought it down and Nico rolled out of the way, controlling the shadows to wrap around Octavian.

"I'll let you out after we all eat." Nico said. Octavian squirmed from the shadows.

"The dark scares me."

Once everyone finished eating they were all flashed back to the room. Reyna gave the book to Jason so he could read the first chapter. He read surprisingly fast and they began.

"I'll read." Jason volunteered.

"**Three Old Ladies Knit The Socks of Death**

"Are all chapter names going to be like this?" Jason asked. Percy smiled and nodded.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.**

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire****campus****seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me.**

"That would be a pretty big prank." Nico said. Jason nodded in agreement.

**The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra****teacher****since Christmas.**

"The Mist is a good and bad thing." Percy mumbled.

"You just said that because all of Yancy thought you were going crazy." Reyna teased.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"Because you are, you haven't just realized it yet." Nico said.

Percy looked at him seriously.

"Oh know, I have realized it."

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

"Almost? I bet it was Grover." Frank said.

"We've all seen how bad of a liar he is." Reyna nodded in agreement.

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

"He really should take lying classes, or at least acting! He could ask the Stolls to help him, I'm sure they'd be glad." Jason said. Percy nodded in agreement.

"But you do know they'd want something in return." Percy pointed out.

"One time I really wanted to prank Annabeth, but those Stolls wouldn't help me unless I got them a date with nymphs. Let's just say it back-fired and the Stolls were in the infirmary for the next few days." Percy snickered.

"I remember that." Nico said with a smile on his face.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, and then****claim****she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

"_Anyone _would know he was lying."

**Something was going on. Something**_**had**___**happened at the museum.**

"Well at least you didn't let the Mist completely fool you. But then again, you're starting to realize you're not normal. Monsters will be out to get you even more now, especially since you have such a powerful scent." Reyna said.

"See, I'm not stupid!" Percy told Nico.

Nico snorted.

"Not believing it."

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"I really do hate dreams and visions, they all suck." Jason mumbled. Percy nodded in agreement.

"Especially when those dreams give you glimpses of the future."

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood.**

"Obviously, if the ocean was mad and restless, you would be mad and restless. It's kind of cool how the whole thing works out." Frank said.

"Yeah, I mean children of the sky could reflect… um storms? Or is the still Poseidon since he's the Storm bringer?" Nico asked.

Jason thought for a second.

"I think Poseidon creates the storms, but then Zeus creates the lightning and the tornados. It's sort of like a tag team." He said.

"Do children of the dead reflect… the dead?" Percy asked, barely realizing how stupid it sounded. Nico raised an eyebrow.

"Yes Percy, we reflect the dead." Nico said dryly.

**One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room.**

"My dad must want to kill you badly, what did you do to anger him?" Jason asked.

"My existence is enough." Percy muttered, so only Nico could hear.

**A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"My dad should really stop killing innocent people."

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

"Why am I now surprised?" Reyna sighed.

Percy smiled and punched the air.

"I'm just awesome like that."

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends.**

"I can't blame you for that, I would've too." Frank admitted.

**I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class. **

"Greeks are trouble." Octavian muttered.

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped.**

Nico's eyes shone.

"Ohh, what'd you say?" He asked.

**I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

Reyna laughed and Octavian blinked. Everyone else looked confused.

"It means an old drunk, or drunkard." He explained.

Everyone burst out laughing.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

"And that's your sixth or fifth school you've been kicked out of?" Octavian asked innocently.

Percy growled at him.

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

"I would be homesick too if Sally was my mom." Nico sighed.

"Homesick? What a momma's boy." Octavian snorted.

Frank and Percy spoke at the same time.

"There's nothing wrong with that!" They smiled and hi-fived each other.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

"Paul? I didn't know he played poker." Nico frowned.

Percy's eyes turned dark and everyone looked at him afraid.

"My step-father before Paul, I don't really want to talk about it." Percy said stiffly.

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view** **of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees.**

"I'm sure Thalia would love to know you like how she smells." Nico smirked.

Percy turned red.

**I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend,** **even if he was a little strange.**

"Oh, Grover would definitely love how you've described him so far!"

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"The question is will you survive next year without him." Jason said darkly.

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

"Latin? You like Latin?" Nico asked.

"Hey, Latin's not bad." Hazel protested.

Percy scrunched his nose.

"I'd take Ancient Greek over Latin any day."

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

"You actually study? Annabeth would be proud of you."

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"Good, now you might have a chance of survival." Reyna muttered.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the**_**Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology**___**across my dorm room. **

"I would've too." Reyna admitted. Percy looked at her in surprise.

"Why?" Reyna smirked.

"It's Greek, do I need another reason?" Percy huffed and looked away.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards.**

"Wow, you're dyslexia is worse than mine." Nico said.

**There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

"You do now." Hazel looked at Nico in surprise.

"How does he know?" She asked. Everyone else waited for the answer, they really wanted to know. Percy looked bored.

"You know, just a visit to the Underworld." He waved it off like it was nothing.

"You've been to the Underworld?" Reyna asked astonished.

"More than once." Percy added.

"Wow." Jason breathed.

**or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"They're not that hard." Frank protested. Percy rolled his eyes.

"You're a Roman, of course Latin is a piece of cake." Frank blushed.

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

"That feeling sucks." Nico and Percy said at the same time.

"How do you know what it feels like?" Octavian asked intrigued.

"Prank." They said at the same time. Octavian looked pleased.

Reyna watched him carefully.

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes.**_**I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**_

"His eyes are kind of scary when they look at you like that." Nico agreed.

"Mr. Brunner sounds a lot like Lupa. Only less hostile." Reyna said.

The Romans nodded in agreement.

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

"Good Percy, you might actually learn something now." Reyna said cheerfully.

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before.**

"Maybe that's why you have low grades?" Reyna said.

Percy rolled his eyes.

"Or maybe it's because I have a major case of ADHD and dyslexia?" He mocked her tone.

She glared at him and motioned for Jason to continue.

**Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam.**

"Aw, it won't be a F Percy." Hazel tried to reassure him.

"It'll be a F-." Frank added. Hazel punched Frank in the shoulder.

**I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"You must look up to him a lot." Jason said.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

"This sounds like the part of the movie when something comes out and eats your face." Frank supplied. Octavian cackled.

"I might actually like you now Zhang."

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,**

_**"...**_ **worried about Percy, sir."**

"We all are." Reyna said, trying not to laugh.

Percy pouted and glared at everyone.

Everyone except Reyna flinched. She laughed.

"Sorry but you're glare shall never hurt me!" She proclaimed. Percy smiled evilly.

"That wasn't my best glare."

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"I am now though." Percy admitted before anyone could speak up.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"I think we would all lose that dare." Octavian said.

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the**_**school**_**! Now that we know for sure, and**_**they**___**know too—"**

"Kindly One? Is that some sort of code?" Jason asked.

Percy nodded and Octavian turned red. Percy interrupted him.

"Before you go saying that we're deceiving you or whatever, but if we say the name monsters would come to the school and I would be dead. We use code names because we don't exactly want to be mauled to death." Percy said.

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

"It's too late for that." Reyna said. Percy stuck out his tongue.

_Wow, Reyna has changed a lot. _Jason thought to himself.

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead line—****"**

"What dead line?" Hazel asked.

"Later." Percy said.

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he**_**saw**___**her..."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

"I'm pretty sure he isn't convinced yet." Frank pointed out.

"No duh." Octavian said.

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

"Duties? Again?" Reyna asked. Percy started cracking up.

"What now?" She asked. Percy couldn't stop laughing but he managed to get words out.

"You said duties. Duty. He he." The way he said it made everyone start laughing, but the Romans soon realized that they were laughing at something pretty stupid so they stopped.

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

"That'll freak him out." Octavian said.

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"Get out of there!" Hazel urged.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"Good, no evidence." Nico said.

"I think you've been spending too much time with the Stolls." Percy said.

Nico ignored him.

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"What is Mr. Brunner?" Reyna gasped. Percy smiled and put a finger to his lips.

"Not saying."

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

"Good, now he won't find you." Frank said.

"Sneaky deceptive Greeks." Octavian mumbled.

**A few seconds later I heard a slow**_**clop-clop-clop,**___**like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

"Like an animal? Is Mr. Brunner a monster?" Jason asked.

Percy and Nico burst out laughing.

"Far from that."

**A bead up sweat trickled down my neck.**

"I hate when that happens. It makes me even more nervous." Frank said.

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

"The winter solstice?" Jason asked.

"The gods hold the meeting at Mt. Olympus and… a few campers from camp get to visit." Percy said, waiting for the cries of protest.

"What? Why would the gods let them there but not us?" Octavian screeched. Nico calmed them down.

"The Greeks gods are more laid-back so they let us visit them more." He explained.

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

Octavian shivered.

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

"I wonder if Grover suspected you when you weren't inside your room." Reyna said. Percy shrugged.

"I don't think so, Grover isn't the sharpest blade of grass." Everyone looked at him weirdly.

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

"No."

"**Just... tired." I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

"That won't work, fauns can sense emotions." Jason frowned.

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

"But you didn't." Frank said.

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"Because you are." Hazel pointed out.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

"That sounds horrible." Nico groaned.

Surprisingly all the Romans agreed, except for Reyna.

"I should add some Latin exams to Camp Jupiter." She mused.

"NO!" Everyone cried out in protest.

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

"Oh gods, Chiron is horrible at this." Nico groaned.

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"I'm going to rip her limb by limb before tossing her remains to a person on bath salts." Reyna snarled.

Percy blinked at her.

"Okay."

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

"Oh my gods, this would be hilarious if it wasn't so heart breaking." Hazel said. Percy rolled his eyes.

"Thanks Haze."

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"It sounds bad when you put it like that." Reyna said.

"It sounds bad no matter how you put it." Octavian snorted.

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

"Now I feel like beating him up." Reyna said. Percy laughed.

"You shouldn't."

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

"That was sad." Hazel said.

"It must be awful having your favorite teacher say you're a failure." Octavian nodded.

That comment caused Reyna to whack him on his head.

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

"What did the poor clothes every do to you?"

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland.**

"Why did they name it Switzerland?" Nico asked.

Reyna shrugged.

"Why did they name it America?"

**Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were**_**rich**___**juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"I don't think your dad would like hearing that Perce." Jason snickered.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

"You didn't have to, I think they already knew." Octavian sneered.

Reyna threw her dagger at Octavian who got stabbed in the shoulder. He cried out.

"Next time I'm aiming for the heart." She said coldly.

Octavian grumpily ate ambrosia.

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"Well look at Percy now!" Hazel exclaimed.

Everyone turned to Percy who sat there with a cheesy smile.

"I don't see much." Frank teased.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had,**

"Well of course, he can't have you running into Kindly Ones." Jason said.

**So there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers.**

"Paranoid much?" Octavian snorted.

"We aren't safe in this world, being careful will increase our survival rates." Frank said coolly.

**It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.**

"Because he is expecting something bad to happen." Nico said.

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

"Or is there?"

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"You're going to give him a migraine." Nico said.

"Fauns don't get migraines." Jason pointed out.

"Exactly."

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

"If the Stolls were here they would be shaking their heads sadly at you. Never confess Percy!" Nico said.

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much**_**did**___**you hear?"**

"Not much."

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

"How about the whole thing?" Reyna said amused.

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

"Demon math teachers?" Frank laughed.

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

"Grover is a really, really bad liar." Jason said.

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"Jinx."

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

"Why is it fancy script?" Hazel asked Percy. He smiled.

"One of our, counselors you could say, likes to torture us. Not physically though, mentally."

_**Grover Underwood**_

_**Keeper**_

_**Half-Blood Hill**_

_**Long Island, New York**_

_**(800) 009-0009**_

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

"Great, now you're going to make him feel bad." Jason said.

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

"I don't think it's a mansion." Nico smiled wryly.

**He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

"Percy!" Hazel scolded.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him.**

"That's sweet." Hazel said.

"I'm throwing up in my throat right now." Octavian said.

**I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended**_**me.**_

"Like I said, sweet."

**"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

"Monsters that wish you eat you?"

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.**

"Do you always describe things like this?" Jason asked, his nose wrinkled in disgust at the thought. Percy smiled as everyone else was gagging.

"Can't help it."

**The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

"I have a bad feeling about this." Nico muttered.

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars.**

"That's horrible, they really should protect the Wild or else there will be no more left." Reyna said.

Nico and Percy smiled sadly.

**On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice**_**.**_

"Great now I want an apple." Percy groaned.

"I always knew you were part horse." Frank said.

**There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

Nico gasped.

Could it be?

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

"Is it?" Hazel whispered.

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

"Oh my gods." Reyna muttered.

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

"You never told me about this!" Nico yelled at Percy.

Percy flinched and looked down in his lap.

"I'll explain later."

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"This is no time to be cracking jokes! The Parcae are staring at you!" Reyna exclaimed.

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

"Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods." Hazel and Frank kept mumbling.

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there." "Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

"Of course you did." Jason groaned.

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that**_**snip**___**across four lanes of traffic.**

Everyone was quiet as they stared at Percy.

"How are you still alive?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why aren't you dead yet?"

"Did you tell Annabeth?"

Percy didn't answer any of them, he just gestured for Jason to continue.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

"Still not time for jokes." Reyna whispered.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

"Of course it does now." Jason sighed.

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

"I hate when that happens." Percy muttered.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

"He must've been so scared." Hazel said sympathetically.

"**Grover?"**

"**Yeah?"**

"**What are you not telling me?"**

"He's not telling you a lot of things." Jason said.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve.**

"**Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

"Fruit?" Frank said trying to cheer everyone up.

"**You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like . . . Mrs. Dodds are they?"**

"They're a whole bunch worse." Octavian muttered, feeling slightly sorry.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much more than Mrs. Dodds.**

"Yeah." Nico sighed.

**He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

"Well someone's demanding." Reyna joked.

Nobody was in the mood.

"**The middle one took our her scissors and she cut the yarn."**

"It's hard to believe how one sentence can sound so horrifying." Hazel said.

Everyone agreed with her.

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older.**

Nico blinked.

"I didn't know you were so observant."

"There's a lot you don't know about me." Percy said smiling.

"That sounded so dirty." Octavian commented. Everyone looked at him.

"What?"

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

"**Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

"A very big deal." Frank added.

"**This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing on his thumb.**

"Have you guys ever wondered why satyrs can chew on their thumbs and not chop them of but can chew through tin cans?" Nico asked suddenly.

Percy thought about it.

"That's a valid question actually." He said. Reyna nodded.

"I think they don't put as much force down on their thumb, or you would see a lot more thumb-less satyrs around." She said.

"**I don't want this to be like the last time."**

"Last time?" Jason asked.

"It'll be in the book."

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

"Does he still blame himself for what happened?" Nico asked Percy. He nodded.

"It wasn't his fault, it was my dad's!" Nico exclaimed.

"He still blames himself." Percy shrugged.

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

"I guess I would be scared too." Frank admitted.

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

"Percy can't keep promises very well." Nico snickered.

"I can keep most of them!" Percy protested.

"Really?" Nico turned serious and Percy realized what he was talking about. He stopped talking and looked at Jason.

"Read."

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

"Nope." Octavian said.

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

"How'd you know that?" Reyna asked. Percy shrugged.

"Just a feeling really." He said.

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"He probably was." Octavian snorted.

"Alright, are we still doing the fight?" Reyna asked as Jason closed the book.

"It's not a fight, just simply a display of power from the Big Three kids split into two teams to see who the better is." Frank corrected.

"That is a fight." Hazel told him.

"Oh." Frank blushed. Percy laughed and got up from his bean bag. He stretched.

"Gods my back hurts." He whined. Reyna laughed at him.

"Look who's getting old," She said as she got up.

"Okay I can see your point now." She grimaced as she put a hand on her back.

"Who's on the teams?" Jason asked. Octavian looked at everyone bored.

"Hazel and Percy against Nico and Jason." Jason nodded. Hazel and Frank stood up and held hands. Jason raised an eyebrow.

"You better not hurt her." He warned. Frank paled and Hazel laughed.

"He won't." Hazel reassured Jason.

"Anyways, the best place to do this would be in an arena. So you know, zap us out of here." Percy told the air. A bright flash covered all of them and when they opened their eyes they were inside a normal sized arena.

On one side there was a huge forest with very tall trees. Next to it was a huge mass of blackness that nobody really wanted to find out what it was, except for Nico of course.

On the other side there was a mini kingdom of jewels and gold, making everyone stare at it wide-eyed. Next to it was a lake full of different kinds of sea-life. Reyna, Frank, and Octavian backed up and went to sit in the stands.

Hazel ran over to the kingdom of jewels and gold, Jason went to the forest, Nico went to the mysterious patch of shadows, and Percy jumped into the lake.

"Okay, we are doing powers only in the beginning! Only when the final two are facing each other, may they use weapons. Prepare yourselves." Reyna commanded.

Percy took a deep breath and readied himself. He shot a look at Hazel who smiled and nodded at him. The two turned their stares to the enemy, glaring at them for better effect.

"Go!" Reyna shouted.

**A/N: Here is this chapter, and I don't like it much. It's too short for my liking.**

**And yes I am so evil for leaving it at that. Who do you guys want to win?**

**Hazel and Percy?**

**Jason and Nico?**

**Tell me in the reviews people!**

**Oh, and you might go saying 'Omg Jason would never do that!', it's my fanfic right? And I don't really like Jason, so I want him to be a douche.**

**I know … So mature of me!**


	3. Bad News

**A/N: Hey guys… This is bad news here…**

**I'm putting all my stories on Hiatus, even the new one.**

**I'm stressing myself out about updating all my stories that I've gotten mad at myself and at my family for not leaving me alone. I need to relax for a while and let inspiration hit me. I WILL be continuing my stories, but not right now.**

**Please understand, I don't really like people being mad at me…**

**For my beta cder3, have any ideas? I am seriously stumped.**

**I'll be back soon, so you don't have to worry too much…**

**Goodbye for now,**

**3214sammy**


End file.
